OLDaily

ePortfolio: a student-centred learning space
Alexandra Mihai, The Educationalist, 2021/07/08

This post is an introduction to the concept of e-portfolios, a topic that hasn't been at the forefront of ed tech development in recent years but which remains an important part of the field. "An ePortfolio is a collection of materials that documents student accomplishments. Unlike an 'analogue' portfolio, the digital element allows for the inclusion of different media (video, audio, infographics, etc), thereby providing students with various means of expression as well as the possibility to easily connect resources and ideas. But ePortfolios go further than that. A space for deep learning, ePortfolios enable the visualisation of one’s own learning path. They can be seen as a “learning diary”, where students reflect on their learning process."

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Audio editor Audacity denies spyware accusation
Zoe Kleinman, BBC News, 2021/07/08

Don't expect an alternative open source version of Audacity to quickly emerge after the manager of a fork resigned after being harassed by 4chan users. Audacity was created at Carnegie Mellon University in 1999 and though it was contributed to open source in 2000, a private entity called Audacity Team retained ownership of the trademark and source code, and it was this entity that sold the rights (for an undisclosed amount of money) to Muse.

The managers of Audacity are denying claims that the music editing application contains spyware, saying it is working "to more clearly communicate" its licensing terms. But sceptics have good reason to doubt this response. As reported on podnews, "the app was 'acquired' by Muse Group, a company based in Cyprus, in May; they attempted to add analytics through Google and Yandex, but reversed that decision. They have also requested open-source developers sign a license agreement to contribute new code." And now the intent is to share is to analytics data with their company in Kaliningrad, Russia. So it is necessary to parse carefully Muse's statement that they will pass along user data "if compelled by a court of law in a jurisdiction that we serve."

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Gender-inclusive French
Victor Mair, Language Log, 2021/07/08

Should it be against the law to teach gender-neutral language? That's not an idle question, as it comes in the wake of a ban on the use of a gender-inclusive writing method announced by France’s education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, a ban that feels reflective of efforts in the U.S. to ban the teaching of critical race theory. This is a good article that quotes a lot from an article in Foreign Policy that draws the connection between language and wider issues: "rarely do proponents of inclusive writing argue that language is the only avenue for progress. Instead, they point to research that highlights a correlation between gender-inclusive language and attitudes toward gender equity."

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Building artificial intelligence: Reward is not enough
Herbert Roitblat, TechTalks, 2021/07/08

Are rewards enough for general artificial intelligence? We looked at this idea a few days ago; this paper is a response and criticism based mostly on conceptual difficulties with the idea. For example, as summarized in Reddit, the author argues that "the reward hypothesis is very much like behaviorism (B. F. Skinner) and past-tense learning (Rumelhart and McClelland), both of which suffered from confirmation bias and have failed. It is a circulary hypothesis." Also: "Reinforcement learning is a purely selective process... actions must already exist for them to be selected." I've seen numerous arguments of this form over the years and what they have in common is that neural networks have always eventually shown they can perform the tasks critics say were conceptually impossible.

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